young and strong Remember thy death in the daies of thy youth in the daies of thy strength before sicknesse and weaknesse seize upon thee Lay not the greatest burthen on the weakest beast Adjourne not the longest journey to the shortest day A whole life is but short enough to provide for Death We are a week providing for a Feast a moneth preparing for a Wedding three moneths deliberation about a Bargaine And will we make no provision no preparation for this aforehand We take time to make provision for the buriall of the dead And shall we take no care to provide for Death it self Many men never think of Death untill Death come and take away their thinking Think upon it I beseech you in season whoever thou art that hearest me this day whether freind or foe stranger or familiar be not deceived the great God of Heaven and Earth the great Determiner of time and daies hath allotted thee such a portion of time which thou shalt not passe Death * Rev. 6.8 mounted on his pale horse is posting towards thee Here is not thy abode nor rest thou dwellest a House of clay in a Tent pitch'd up to day and removed to morrow Thou art a Didapper peening up and down in a moment depart thou must and be gone God knows how soon First then this may reach us watchfulnesse we know not the hour goe let us watch every houre We know not the hour wherein Death the Lords Handmaide with the broom of sickness or sorrow will sweep us away as the maide doth the spiders house 2. It may teach us to provide for things Eternall what ever becomes of Temporals for Death will strip us of all 3. Labour to bid Death welcome How shall I doe this First follow the precious Counsell of Christ * Mat. 6.20 Lay up Treasure for your selves in Heaven Which are Workes of Pietie and Deeds of Charity they will comfort you in Death and accompany you to Heaven 2. Looke carnestly to things that are above To GOD to IESUS CHRIST who sits at Gods right hand carrying on the great worke of Mans Redemption So did * Acts 7.55 Stephen in that extraordinary vision he saw the admirable Glory of Christ in Heaven 3. Live after the Laws of the new Ierusalem become a new creature be borne againe he that is borne but once shall die twice and he that is borne twice shall die but once 4. Labour to get an assurance of the forgivenesse of thy Sinnes Labour to finde God reconciled unto thee Labour to feele the power of CHRISTS Death and the vertue of His Resurrection 5. Live in all good Conscience they that live in all good Conscience till their dying day shall depart in abundance of Comfort at their dying day Get a good Conscience and keep a good Conscience that when thou shalt come to die though thou want the benefit of a comforting Minister thy Conscience may supply the place of a comforting Minister and may be the same to thee as the Angell was to CHRIST in His Agony and minister such comfort unto thee as may make thee ready for joy to leap into the grave Lastly be willing to die feare it not IESUS CHRIST was once among the dead thou must follow him through the horrours of the grave Art thou a child of God Hast thou given up thy Name to IESUS CHRIST Though Death invade the naturall powers of thy body and suppresse them though Death breake in upon this lodging of clay and demolish it to the ground yet be in no wise daunted thy death is but like the renting of * Gen. 39. Iosephs garment from him the man of God fled and left his garment in the hand of his Mistrisse So a child of God escapes out of the hands of Death without danger Vivendo decrescit transeundo nos terit he leaves his garment in the hands of Deaâ—h i. e. his body which like a garment the longer we weare it will be the worse for wearing The dissolving of the body to the man of God is but the unfolding of the Net and breaking open the Prison that the Soule which was prisoner may escape Here is notable comfort for the man of God He hath a life in him which no death can extinguish though the body descend into the grave the Lord will take it out againe He will not leave it in the grave neither cast off the care thereof but shall watch over the dust therof though it taste of corruption it shall not perish in corruption The Holy Ghost who dwelt in the body shal be unto it as a Balm to preserve it to Immortality This same flesh and no other for it though it should be dissolved into innumerable pickles of dust shall be raised againe and quickned by the omnipotent power of the eternall Spirit of GOD. Occasion I now come to the Occasion Something I shall say of this deceased Gentleman here arrested before our eyes for a debt of Nature I shall not praise his Birth nor his Education nor his Profession but as * Hierom Epitaph Mar. Hierom said of Marcella that godly Woman Nihil in illa laudabo nisi quod proprium I will praise nothing in him but what was proper and peculiar to him Consider him as a Man Husband Christian And we shall find him a patterne worthy imitation 1. Consider him as a man As a man he had his Infirmities For Lord what is man 8 Ps An infirme fraile creature many and great infirmities we labour under as we are men We have strong Corruptions in us as we are men we can doe no thing but Sinne Yet this I may safely deliver of him that he kept himselfe or rather GOD by His Grace kept him from those Sinnes against which Holy David prayed * Ps 19.13 Lord keep thy servant from presumpteous sinnes Wee are are naturally prone to great sinnes he was not a strong Sinner O the strength of sin in our daies Notwithstanding Admonitions Iudgements Mercies men goe on still in sinnes No reformation no amendment we were sinners before the Wars and we are sinners still He was none of these 2. Consider him as a Husband And there he observed the rule of the Apostle * Col. 3.19 Husbands love your Wives and be not bitter against them He lived lovingly with his Wife in the sacred Conjunction of their GOD six and thirtie yeares together Children he had none that lived but a chearfull respecter of them whom Law and Love had made his own No Lyon in his house no Tyrant among his servants freindly affable courteous towards his Neighbours observing another precept of the Apostle * Rom. 12.16 equalling himself to them of low degree whereby he gained love and lost nothing of his reputation 3. Consider him as a Christian And so hee was 1. Peaceable 2. Humble 3. Charitable 4. Devout Foure most infallible evidences as I take them of a true Christian and
lib. 16. Sigon de Occid Imp. lib. 6. But this onely pleaseth me well that I see men die at Rome as elswhere So it may be said of all other Eminent Places and Renowned Cities from which Death cannot be excluded Enter it will upon thee either at thy Gates with full force or in at thy Windowes with great feare There is no possibility avoid it as the Prophet * 9 Jer. 20,21 Ieremiah from the LORD tells the Mourning VVoemen who were usually hired at great * 2 Chron. 35.25 Funeralls to Mourne and to make exquisite Lamentation Heare the Word of the Lord O yee Woemen and let your eare receive the word ef His mouth and teach your Daughters Wailing and every one her Neighbour Lamentation 21 ver For Death is come up into our Windowes and entred into our Palaces Our strongest places cannot keep it out Thirdly nor the height of Honour or Estimation can priviledge thee from the fatall Dart of Death The Rich mans Gold it cannot guard him the VVise mans VVit cannot ward him the Knowledge of Learned men cannot keep it out their Skill cannot save them nor the Arms and Trophies of Noblemen exempt them nor the * Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres Horat lib. 1. Od. 4. Guard of Kings deliver them Visuntur magni parva sepulchra Iovis * Paulus Jovius de vita Illustr Tamberlaine the Terrour of the VVorld dyed with three fits of an Ague And Saladine that that Mighty Pagan which wanne the Holy Land from the Christians in the height of his Pride and Ruffe in the midst of all his Pompe and Glory in the top of his Honours was surprised by Death and the Solemnitie he had at his Interment was onely this one carrying his Shirt or Shrowd one a Speare or Spade crying * G. Parad. in Heroicis Hae sunt reliquiae Victoris Orientis This is all that Great and Mighty Saladine the Conquerour of the East carrieth to his Grave You see then die we must thou canst not withdraw thy selfe from it no place can priviledge thee no power protect thee no strength defend thee GOD alone hath an eternall Being according to that expression of the Apostle 13 Heb. 8 IESUS CHRIST the same yesterday and to day and for ever an Incomprehensible Being an Independent Being GOD alone can say * 3. Ex. 14. I am that I am and will be what I have been Men may say nothing else but I am and shall not be I am to day a fresh and lusty creature perhaps to morrow smitten like Ionahs withered Gourd or Palmarist Ionah 3.7 To this agreeth the * Plutarch Lacedaemonian Song consisting of three parts The * Quondam alij nunc nos subitò crescentque minores QuoruÌ„ nos stirpem sata videre negant Elder sang We have been strong and are not now The Youth replied We shall be strong but are not yet The Middle-age sang We are now strong but shall not be All men must needs sing this note Now I shall further demonstrate this unto you And first from things above us secondly from things about us First look above you there you see the Sunne that glorious creature over you daily rising and setting the Moon monethly waxing and wayning the Stars shining and anon shutting What doth this but tell us hold out unto us that we who now rise must set who now wax must wayne who now shine and glitter must shortly shut and fall Secondly look about you * Vtque notus frondes ad terram dejicit imam post alias viridi prodâ—cunt verâ—ice sylvae sic gâ—…s humanum rursùs crescitque caditque Glauc apud hom In your feilds and gardens you see the Trees and Flowers now flourishing anon withered Doth it not teach us that we who now flourish must perish Looke to the Sea now flowing and filling high banks anon ebbing Doth it not teach us that our life which is now at full tide must be at a low ebb we must be emptied by Death 1. Consider the Apparell on your backs the Gloves on your hands the Shooes on your feet the Meat on your tables All teach and instruct us that these bodies of ours which are kept alive by the death of other creatures must at last yeeld to Death Consider the severall parts of your bodies 1. Your Eies every night dying in sleep doe shew that we at last must sleep in Death 2. The Haire and Nailes calling for poling and shaving tell us that the whole body must shortly be shav'd by Death 3. The Stomach still digesting our meat and craving for more sheweth the unsatiablenesse of the Grave which having eaten and digested our Freinds gapes for us and when it hath devoured us will hunger for them that must come after us 4. This very place sheweth we must die the action that we are about this last function of Charity to our deceased Brother that it will not be long ere our Freinds must meet here or elswhere to requite our kindnes by doing the like for us My Text tels us we shall die All things in this life make way for Death that she may triumphantly passe through the feild of this world over the carcasses of her slain Thus Death rules on Earth as Eternity in Heaven there all live here all die The Dominion of Death is Vniversall 'T is a Clock that alwaies strikes a Sword that alwaies executeth a Snare which alwaies entrapeth a Sea whereinto all Rivers run wherein all Ships suffer wrack a Paine which every one must endure a Tribute which every one must pay sooner or later thou must taste of Deaths cup even in the furthest and fairest path of Nature thou art not far from it and the day will shortly come when thou shalt live in the morning and at night be dead But I must looke into my second Doctrine namely there shall be a Resurrection a Restitution of the body from the Grave 'T is neither totall nor perpetuall It strikes upon the baser part the body is dead because of Sin Rom. 8.10 We shall live again none may deny it All the people of GOD have a holy perswasion of this Truth there is an impression in them of their Immortality this hath been a naile of the Sanctuary to keep them from desperate distractions to set them forward to Perfection to make them undaunted in the terrours of Death Iob was hereof perswaded * Job 19.24,25 I shall llve againe He was undauntedly assured hereof so assured that he would have it written and how Not in loose Papers but in a Book O that my words were written And not onely written but engraven and that with an Iron-pen in lead or in stone to endure not for a time onely but for ever for the solace and comfort of all the distressed Saints of God David in his distresse anchored in this Hold * 27 Ps 13. Verily I believe
to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living St. Paul was ravished with the assurance of life after death his note ever after was to be dissolved * Phil. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to be dissolved or resolved into my first Principles or to be discharged or released out of the prison of my body that I may presently be with CHRIST my Saviour in Heaven in rest and in blisse View Annot in Philip. Now a word or two of my third Doctrin and I shall make Application A Change will come and we must daily expect it We are all desirous of Change Adam would be changed 3 Gen. He had enough Wisdome he would be as wise as his Maker And * 2 Sam. 15. Absolom would be changed hee would sit in his Fathers Throne and of a Subject become a Soveraign Solomon would have change of Wives 1 K. 11.3 700 whom he solemnly married The Israelites would change Samuel for Saul 1 Sam. 5.8 And the food of Angels for the flesh-pots of Aegypt 11 Numb 4,5,6 Men affect alterations choppings and changes but we seldome or never remember the great Change of which the Apostle speakes 3 Phil. 21. Who shall change our vile bodies or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza Annot the body of our vilenesse that it may like unto His glorious body or the body of his glory We never think of this Change O the glorious estate that a child of God shall be transchanged into this corruptibilitie and mortalitie shall be changed into incorruptibilitie and immortalitie But I will fall Application upon the Application of these Points Application being the Life of Doctrines The use in gerall that we are to make of all this precedent Discourse is to prepare for Death and Dissolution We read in Solomons distribution of times that * Eccl. 3.2 there is a time to be borne and a time to die but of no time to live as if our Birth bordered upon our Death and our Cradles stood in our Graves That Death therefore may not surprize you as it did that wicked * Adversus omnia pericula me munivi praeterquà m adversus mortem amp c. 1. Seriously Caesar Borgia think upon it 1. Seriously 2. Rightly 3. Seasonably 1. Seriously 1. Doe it Seriously this doe by laying it to heart * 7 Eccl. 2. This is the end of all men and the living will lay it unto heart to the very heart of our heart We must not lay it to our Eyes to gaze upon it nor to our eares to heare of it nor to our tongues onely to discourse and talke of it O such a one is dead such a one is gone to his long home but we must apply it to our hearts ruminate it in our minds rivet it in our memories ponder it in our meditations suffer it to make a deep impression in us And that for these reasons * Qui considerat qualis erit in morte semper fit timidus in operatione Lud. Gra. Tit. Morb. He that thinks seriously of his death will be very circumspect in his deeds Men will not be such traders in Sin such drinkers in of Inqiuity Religion and the Waies of GOD will not be so slighted set before thine eyes the picture of Death A serious thought of thy Death will help to drive evill thoughts out of thy heart Mortem cogitare est vitiis omnibus renunciare ' Twiâ—l divorce thee from the Vvorld 't will alienate thy affections from things earthly this pricketh in the right veine 2. The thought of Death will make you lessc worldly you will not be such drudges to the world Now thou art like a Mole over head and eares in earth anon comes Death like a Mole-catcher and takes thee up The * Luke 12,19,20 Rich man had Goods for many years but not many years for his Goods Death will turne thee empty into thy Grave as Carriers turne their horses into a dirty Stable with a gaulled back and thee perhaps with a gaulled Conscience Now thou mayst state it and stout it out but shortly death will make thee stoop Now you may feed your unsanctified desires but you shall have at length your full deserts 3. Thinke of thy death and it will take thee off from all thy unjust dealings VVe should not have so many Oppressours there would be lesse wrongs in the world A heavy Judgement hangs over mens heads because of oppression and violence Nay thy Conscience will one day rebuke thee at thy death it will trouble thee * In Barons Wars I have read of a Great man in this Land by whom a poore VViddow was exceedingly wronged and put from her house and home and constrained to make an old Oake her best harbour But when he came to die he was so affrighted that in horrour of mind he often exclamed O the Widdow under the Oake O the Widdow under the Oake In the midst of your Ruling remember your Reckoning He that thinks upon his death seriously will be afraid to get his goods wrongfully 4. To think of Death will greatly humble thee nothing so powerfully treads down Pride as this Consider that thou art but a dead man and thy body be it never so strong or beautifull is but a lodging of Death thou art but a rotten creature yea vermis crastino moriturus a worme that must dye to morrow So oft therefore as corrupt Nature stirreth up thy heart to Pride because of the flowers of beauty and strength that grow out of it let this humble thee thy flowers O man cannot but wither for the root from which they spring namely the body is dead already 2. Rightly Secondly thinke of thy death Rightly Send out the scouts of thy heart aforehand And that for these reasons 1. To discover the Power of Death 2. The Perill of Death 1. The Power of Death Great is the Power of Death 't is unresistible thou art not able to encounter it Art thou able to withstand the Messenger of the Almighty No Death is an Iron-hammer that breakes us all to peices as so many Potters vessels Death comes upon the Wicked as Iehu came upon Iehoram 2 K. 9. v. 23 24. He made with all speed to his Chariot thinking to fly away but in vaine for the Arrow of Iehu overtooke him So when men with all speed run to their Chariots i. e. to their refuges of vanities the dart of Death surely overtakes them 2. To discover the Peril of Death O there is a great dealt of peril and danger in Death Death will be very terrible to an unregenerate man Art thou a Sweater or a Drunkard 't is the Devils Serjeant to arrest thee and carry thee without baile to the prison of utter darknesse It is Satans Cart to carry thee presently to execution in Hell 3. Sesonably 3. We must think upon it seasonably timely and in due season Think on it while we are